Let’s Take Boko Haram Seriously

Social media was supposed to provide platform to the information not reported by the mainstream media. But the ease with which facts can be distorted and made viral on such platforms, without any personal accountability, has put a huge question mark on the reliability of this tool. It is alarming how leading political parties are hiring professionals to proliferate information in news format without any kind of authentication. In such an exercise, the social media has become a troll station where character assassination has become a fashion for rivals. However, even after so much of flaws, social media has become an integral part of our life. Hence, there is need for the government to address this issue and incept a regulatory body that can check purity, authenticity and accuracy of the news flow through social media platforms.

Entire north-east is under poll grip due to the assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. But, it’s surprising that after poll boycott decision by all the political parties operating in Nagaland, there is no reporting about as to how these parties changed its mind and entered the poll fray. Similarly, in these elections, local issues have taken the backstage and nonsensical issues have grabbed the Centrestage. The government of India must address the local issues and make a policy as our experience suggest that a state government can’t run on accords. So, there should be concrete governance policy that can help us address the border issues that are affecting us both socially, economically, politically and diplomatically. Even Supreme Court has come out in open and has suggested some guidelines to the Centre. Hence, it’s high time for the central government to rise to the occasion and take advantage of those Supreme Court guidelines and ensure safety of our border states.

For last few years, talks of anti-terror stance have become synonymous to Islamic State ISIS. Though, ISIS is mere hype when we compare it with Boko Haram — a terror outfit operating in African continent since 2002. The terror organization, that was declared to be the world’s deadliest terror outfit in 2015, has abducted 110 girls from a school in Nigeria and the government there seems completely helpless when it comes to rescue of those girls. This is not the first time when they have shown such outrageous conduct. The group has carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014. Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them has hampered efforts to counter the unrest. In Uganda during Idi Amin’s time, Boko Haram has been hounding its peace and harmony from its misconducts. Ironically, initially dictatorial regimes like Idi Amin used Boko Haram to suppress public protest against their regime and in return helped Boko Haram to establish. Now, these dictatorial regimes are tumbling but not the Boko Haram. Hence, the global community should take a stance over Boko Haram the way they have tighten their belt against ISIS.

After the Nirav Modi incident, Modi government is facing criticism from all quarters. But, to my surprise, Modi government is showcasing alibi that the incident took place during UPA days and the loans were sanctioned under the UPA regime. Hence, the Modi government shouldn’t be made responsible for this theft of public money. In fact, the way Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari’s loan default case is being highlighted and some more big media houses selling out their units and stakes in various ventures to pay back their banks loans indicates that government is planning to toss some more names from the business fraternity to paint this whole issue as Modi government’s crackdown on willful bank loan defaulters. If this is the case, then BJP may be benefit but the nation would bleed. In fact, the BJP government should follow the Supreme Court ruling and ask RBI to publish the list of loan defaulters if they don’t comply by the bank instructions. This will be in line with their election manifesto. If they follow this path, both BJP and national economy will be benefitted. Now, it’s up to Modi to decide and clear his priority.

By the time, this edition would hit the stands, whole nation would be gearing up to celebrate festival of colours. Hope, in this HolikaDahan, our leaders burn their animosity and help parliament to function in smooth manner.